A number of negroes were at work lowering it down, when suddenly something cracked and the most of them let go the winch.

The great timber must have come down on the deck with damaging effect if Lee, who had often seen such cranes used before, had not jumped to the safety-break, at the risk of being killed by the whirling winch-handles, and brought the beam to a stand before it could do any damage.

“Well done, my lad!” shouted a stout, bronzed man, from the vessel.  “You just stay there and work those other three timbers down on deck, and I’ll pay you for it.  I’m short handed.  But, stop; maybe you belong to some of these other vessels?  No?  Well, I’ll be as good as my word.  My mate’s sick with this confounded North Carolina fever, and the second-mate’s got some kind of ‘fantods,’ too, and is laid up, and I want to get away to-day.”

“Send me out a drink of water and a piece of hard tack, sir, and I’ll stop here till the timbers are on board.”

“Steward,” called the captain, “there’s a boy out there on the dock; I want you to take him something to eat and drink.  He’s the one at the break.  Now, bear a hand and sling another one.”

While they were slinging it Lee managed to eat something, and in an hour the whole were safely on deck and securely chocked.  Then the captain saw Lee still on the dock and beckoned him on board.

“Now, here’s a half-dollar for you, my lad.  Do you belong about these parts?  Don’t look as if you did.  But, no matter; I s’pose you’ve run away from some vessel.  Now, I’m bound to Havana with this load of lumber, and I’ll ship you, if you like.”

“I would rather ship in some vessel going north, sir.”

“Well, maybe you can and maybe you can’t.  I’m going to haul out, right away.  Go, or not go?  What do you say?”

“Are you going home from Havana, captain?”

“I can’t say.  I will, if I get a charter.  But, being short handed, I’d like to have a good, active, stout lad, like you, and will give you ordinary seamen’s wages.  Haven’t been much to sea, have you?”

“No, sir; but I’m not a bad schooner sailor, and can reef and steer.”

“Well, I don’t want any shilly-shally!  Say yes or no.  I have my clearance, and here comes the tug to take me down the Sound.”

“Well, yes, then.”

And so it came about that Lee found himself, within half an hour, bound down for Hatteras Inlet and thence for Havana, when he had only started from home to go halibut fishing!

CHAPTER VII.

In a day or two after the vessel got to sea the mates got better and went to duty, and the skipper seemed to take a pleasure in abusing and worrying them, although it was evident from their appearance that they had suffered severely from the swamp fever, and had not been shamming, as the captain intimated.

In fact, the latter turned out to be a regular sea-tyrant, and Lee soon found that life under him would be intolerable.